FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2012 – MEDIA RELATIONS CONTACT: Zach Lawson (zlawson@uark.edu)

 

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD

Stanford Invitational next for No. 4 Arkansas

 

            FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The No. 4 University of Arkansas men’s track and field team spends its first of two straight road weekends at the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif. The April 6-7 competition begins Friday afternoon and concludes Saturday at the Cobb Track & Angell Field. The Razorbacks will open their middle-distance and distance runners at Stanford.

            “We’re used to traveling out to Palo Alto,” head coach Chris Bucknam said. “We ran some of our guys in odd events and we’ll continue to run them every weekend. We’ll open some guys this weekend like Solomon Haile and Duncan Phillips. This weekend gives up another opportunity to get some races in a pretty high-powered meet.”

            Arkansas’ scheduled entries are Drew Butler and Duncan Phillips in the 800 meters; Butler, Omar Abdi, Thomas Cattin-Masson, Scott Gillespie, Anthony Lieghio and Patrick Rono; Lane Boyer, Cameron Efurd, Solomon Haile and Layne Nixon; and Rick Elliott and David Flynn in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

            The Stanford Invitational features a loaded men’s field with 12 teams ranked in the top 25. Along with the Razorbacks, the weekend competition includes No. 3 Florida State, No. 5 Texas, No. 8 USC, No. 11 Indiana, No. 12 Arizona, No. 13 Baylor, host and No. 19 Stanford, No. 20 Iowa, No. 23 Oklahoma, No. 24 Wisconsin and No. 25 Kansas.

            “Obviously, we’d like to get some regional qualifiers out of this meet,” Bucknam said. “We’d like to knock some of those out early, if we can. The Stanford meet is a week later than normal but that shouldn’t affect the performances any.”

            One week into its outdoor campaign, Arkansas moved up one spot in the April 3 release of the USTFCCCA national poll. The Razorbacks are ranked No. 4 this week and are one of seven teams from the SEC positioned in the top 25. Arkansas is joined in the weekly rankings by Florida, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Georgia and Auburn.

Meet coverage, including race broadcast sand interviews, of the Stanford Invitational will be available at Flotrack.org. For more information regarding Razorback track and field or University of Arkansas athletics, please visit ArkansasRazorbacks.com.

 

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